As household budgets tighten, performance-driven marketing channels prove their resilience — and their indispensability.
Britain’s affiliate and partner marketing industry generated £1.8 billion in advertiser spend in 2025, a 7.3 percent increase on the previous year, according to the third edition of the State of the Affiliate Nation report published by the Affiliate & Partner Marketing Association.
The spend produced £20.7 billion in revenues — a return on investment of 15 times — rising to 19 times in the travel and retail sectors. The figures, drawn from data submitted by 11 major affiliate networks, including impact.com, cover 357 million transactions processed through affiliate links over the course of the year, equivalent to 41,000 transactions every hour.
The channel’s performance during peak shopping periods was particularly striking. Across Cyber Weekend, one pound in every seven was spent through an affiliate link, up from one in eight the previous year.
A Maturing Market
Retail remained the industry’s dominant force, accounting for 47 percent of all affiliate spend. Spending on comparison shopping services rose 18 percent year on year, matched by an equivalent increase in health and beauty revenues. Travel was another standout, with spend up 14 percent and revenues rising 10 percent.
In telecoms, affiliates delivered one million new customers per month, with price comparison sites accounting for 43 percent of sector spend — four times the industry average. In finance, affiliate spend reached £10 million per month, a 9 percent annual increase, with content publishers attracting the largest share of investment at 31 percent.
Among publisher types, cashback, card-linked offers, and rewards were the biggest overall drivers of sales, while voucher partners delivered a 24x return on investment.
One of the report’s more significant findings is a structural shift in how advertisers deploy the channel. Increasingly, brands are using affiliate marketing throughout the customer journey rather than solely at the point of conversion. Close to one pound in five was spent on clicks, tenancies, hybrid arrangements, and other non-cost-per-acquisition payment models — a sign that the industry is moving decisively beyond its last-click origins.
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Resilience Under Pressure
The growth in both spend and revenues came despite only a modest increase in transaction volumes, pointing to a rise in average order value — a counterintuitive outcome given the pressures on household budgets, but one the industry attributes to the channel’s established performance credentials.
“It’s very encouraging to see the affiliate and partner marketing industry deliver such a strong set of numbers for 2025,” said Ant Clements, UK Country Manager at impact.com. “Brands are moving spend from ineffective channels into high-performing ones like affiliate, influencer, and partner marketing. Things are tough out there, so it is no surprise to see marketers putting their faith in channels known for their accountability.”
Kevin Edwards, founder and director of the APMA, pointed to the underlying consumer dynamic driving the channel’s resilience. “Many publisher models are built around empowering consumers to make better purchasing decisions while saving money,” he said, “and in the current economic climate, that is particularly powerful.”
The full report is available to APMA members. Non-members may access a summary, and advertiser membership is available at no cost.